Informer Term 4 - Week 6

From Our Principal ...

Dear Families,

As we head into what for schools is our busiest time of year, we are often at our lowest ebb. Kids are tired, parents are tired, teachers are worn out from a hectic year. We often wonder how we are going to get everything done and still stay sane. At this time of year in everyone’s lives there is work pressure, family pressure not to mention physical and mental tiredness.

Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the American President once said, “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along. "You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

In fact, sometimes we're at our strongest when we don't feel confident or strong or whole. Sometimes it's not about growing stronger but about knowing we're weak.

In his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul wrote about his "thorn in the flesh", which he begged God to remove from his life. Then he wrote this:

"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

When life is at its craziest, do we stop and ask for help? Our God is always there.

Dear Lord,
So far today I've done all right.
I haven't gossiped, cursed, or lost my temper.
I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or over indulgent.
I am really glad about these things.
But, in a few minutes Lord,
I am going to get out of bed,
and from then on,
I'm probably going to need a lot more help.
Thank You,
In Jesus' Name,
AMEN

Have a great week and hug your kids.

Regards,
Jamie Emerick
Principal.

Sharing Faith

Thank you to Marco for leading the entire school in prayer today. Not bad for a young lad in front of 630 students!

He shared the Hail Mary in his home language of Vietnamese. This prayer is 500 years old and has a rich history within the Catholic tradition. It is a prayer asking Mary to intercede for us. We can all learn from each other as Ari discovered today.         

School Fees

Student Haircuts

In July this year, a letter was sent home from the Principal reminding all families of the expectations of within our school, in particular to haircuts.

While trends with fashion come and go, our expectations of conservative hairstyles that do not draw attention remains firmly in place.

Our full Uniform Policy can be found in our Parent Handbook (on our website and on our school ap) but please see below an extract for reference.

Hair styles should reflect a conservative image that doesn’t draw undue attention to individuals.

• Hair longer than collar length must be worn fully tied up in a full ponytail, bun or similar.
• Hair must be out of the face (especially eyes) at all times.
• Hairbands, ribbons or clips must be must natural, red, white or navy blue. Elaborate or oversized hair accessories are not acceptable.
• Hair styles must reflect a conservative image that doesn’t draw undue attention to individuals.
• Artificial hair colours, rat’s tails, undercuts, tracks (including tracks along the part-line) and extreme hairstyles (mohawk, buzz cut, styles including a gauge less than 3, mullets or dreadlocks) are unacceptable.
• Hair must be tidy and reflect good personal hygiene.

If doubt exists with a style of hair, a student or parent should check with the Principal or Assistant Principal Administration before having a style change.

Swimming Lessons- Prep to Year 2

Prep - Year 2 Families have been emailed information regarding swimming lessons.  Please accept/decline your child's attendance via Parent Lounge by today.  Lessons will take place over four consecutive days (25 November to 28 November) at the John Dahl Swimming Pool.  More information can be found in the letter sent to parents.

Year 3 - 6 Swimming Carnival Information

Is Your Family Leaving St John's?

Student Leadership Process...

Student Leadership at St John’s
As we head into the last 5 weeks of Term Four, our Year 5 students rise to the occasion of 
presenting their School and House Captain Leadership speeches to the St John’s school 
community.

As with all things, there is a process to follow for leadership selection.

As outlined in our Parent Handbook (found on our School Ap and on our School Website) 
students (in Years 3-6) and staff elect 10 students into positions of added responsibilities:

•  School Captain – one boy and one girl
•  House Captains – one boy and one girl (Cummins, Jordan, Philps, Wallace)

While all Year 6 students are student leaders in their final year of schooling, the above 
positions allow students who wish to pursue added responsibility to apply.

Students in Years 3- 6 and staff are eligible to vote. Where a staff member has their own 
child running for a position, they are not eligible to vote for that specific category e.g., a 
teacher whose daughter is running for girl school captain cannot vote for the girl school 
captain position but can vote for the boy captain.

The final decision will be at the discretion of the Principal.

Our voting process, while succinct, does have steps. 

School Captain Candidates
Any student wishing to apply for any leadership position, must do so in writing, via the 
application form in the correct timeframe (see Parent Handbook for further details).

Once written applications are processed, students applying for the position of School 
Captain present a preliminary speech to their Year 5 peers, teachers and the leadership 
team. From this preliminary round, five girls and five boys are short-listed to present their 
final Year 6 School Captain late in Term 4 at full school Assembly. At the Principal’s 
discretion, a sixth candidate may be included. 

Parents are welcome to attend the final speech.

At the conclusion of the School Captain speeches, students in Years 3-6, staff and the 
Leadership Team vote and using the preferential voting system, 1 boy and 1 girl School 
Captain is elected.

Phone calls are only made to families of the elected School Captain, prior to the End of Year 
Mass, where the following years School Captains are announced. These phone calls will 
generally occur one week prior to the End of Year Mass.

House Captain Candidates
There are NO preliminary speeches for the selection of House Captains. Candidates are
selected directly from their written application and teacher/leadership review.

All suitable candidates present their House Captain speech to their House peers late in Term 
Four (on the same day as the School Captain speeches, but later in the day).

Parents are welcome to attend the House Captain speech.

Year 3 to 6 Enrichment Activities

Last year we trialed with the Year 3-6 students, Enrichment Lessons which the students overwhelmingly enjoyed.  The students have requested we do Enrichment Lessons again this year, so over the last few weeks, we have come up with a very large list of teacher-led activities and the students were able to nominate their 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd choices.

The list of activities encompass the following – creating a cookbook , fitness/bootcamp, diamond art, yarn crafts, water colours, painting the new buddy benches, football, drama, pottery, robotics, basketball, drones, chess/lego/boardgames, computer coding, tie-dying and graffiti art.

I think you would agree that this is a fabulously extensive list to suit all interests again this year!

With the term being very full (as always in Term Four), the activities will occur in Week 9 and Week 10.

Year 6 Combined Liturgy: Mon 25 Nov

Our Year 6 students will have their final liturgy at St John’s as a combined group.

The liturgy will begin at 9:15am and should finish by 10am. Students are asked to bring a small plate of food to share after the liturgy. We will enjoy having time together after the liturgy. This journey is coming to a close for many of you and we will miss you.

P & F Meeting: TODAY

Robotics Champions!

On Saturday 2 November, a team of highly skilled students represented St. John’s in the FIRST Lego League robotics competition.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League introduces science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to students through fun, exciting hands-on learning. FIRST LEGO League participants gain real-world problem-solving experiences through a guided, global robotics program, helping today’s students and teachers build a better future together. FIRST LEGO League’s three divisions inspire youth to experiment and grow their critical thinking, coding and design skills through hands-on STEM learning and robotics. Students participate in three rounds of Robot Games, each one lasting two and a half minutes. They are also judged on their robot design skills and Innovation Project.

Our team demonstrated exceptional performance while embodying gracious professionalism. They scored an impressive 190 points in the Robot Games and received The Champion’s Award for the best overall performance in all categories. The Champion’s Award is awarded to a team that fully embraces the Core Values while achieving excellence and innovation in Robot Performance, Robot Design and the Innovation Project. As a result of their outstanding performance, our team has been invited to the next level of competition (National North), hosted by Chanel College this year. The Nationals are scheduled for Saturday November 23, and we extend our best wishes to them for the upcoming competition.

Capricornia School Sport

St John's Way Awardees...

Students who have embodied faith, dignity and integrity within our school.

We view our school as one body, with many parts, each in its own way contributing to our common mission.
(1 Corinthians 12: 12-26)

Library News ...

Hello Parents and Students!

The library is buzzing this month! We’ve got some awesome new books for our young adventurers to dive into. Fantastic stories and exciting adventures!

Come on in and check out the beautiful new addition, thanks to Mrs. Rossiter — it’s sure to become a long-time favourite!

Big thanks to all our wonderful helpers who’ve kept things running smoothly while Mrs. Shelhorn has been away, with a special shout out to Edwina for keeping the returns trolley looking great! If anyone else would like to volunteer, we’d love to have you on board!

Happy Reading!

Mrs Lamb 🙂

Flute Recruiting For 2025

Signing Club

Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God.
(1 Peter 2: 17)

Learn to Pray

Prayer is many things: an experience, a relationship, an expression of belief, a practice of religion, a realignment.

Prayer is a way to talk to God in the good times and the hard. Students, staff and parents are welcome to attend our Learn to Pray session each Tuesday.

OSHC Vacation Care

Tuckshop Ordering Information

The following information will ensure the efficient ordering of tuckshop for your child/ren:

• Tuckshop must be ordered online via QuickCliq www.quickcliq.com.au  Orders will not be accepted at the Tuckshop or Office.
• Orders must be placed by 8:10am. Tuckshop can be ordered weeks in advance. Simply click on the day/s that tuckshop is required.
• QuickCliq operates very slowly at very busy times i.e. close to 8:10am.  During these times the system may boot you off and require you to log back in. Late orders put a lot of pressure on our tuckshop staff and volunteer helpers.
• If you miss the ordering cut off time, your order will be transferred to the following day.  You will be notified of this on the screen.
• Parents MUST check confirmation email to ensure the order has been processed for the correct food on the correct day.

If you have any problems with the online ordering system please contact QuickCliq via 1300 11 66 37, or email: support@quickcliq.com.au

Our tuckshop operates every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (first and second breaks).

Volunteer Tuckshop Roster

Tuckshop Menu

Uniform Shop Hours

Parish News ...

St Vincent de Paul Society Needs Help

      The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved;
loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
            Victor Hugo. 19th century  French poet, novelist dramatist. Author of Les Misérables.

Parish Centenary Raffle

Got to be in it, to win it!

Our Lady Star of the Sea church is celebrating her 100^th birthday!

Raffle tickets are available from the front office for $5.

First prize is a fabulous dinner for six with a difference.

She Rides